Chapter XIV

Odd things

Her eyes sparkled when she saw the small table filled with all sorts of Japanese dishes: sushi served as starter, Donburi, Sashimi and her favorite, Ranmen, which she started eating first, after saying "Itadakimas!", a commonly used japanese pray before starting to eat.

He watched her as she stuffed the noodles in her mouth, sometimes not even using the chopsticks and taking the whole bowl. The bowl was emptied within seconds. Then the Donburi was taken and unmercifully consumed with lust.

She ate like a pig. Still, Hao knew from the beginning that manners wouldn't actually find a place in her personality when it was about her growing personal needs. Apparently, that was one of her many weird things she had.

She couldn't even call herself a woman. She doesn't even compare to the ones Hao met in his past lives and were all charmed by him, even if he had no interest in them.

His chopstick was touching the sushi, waiting for Opacho to come and bring the soy sauce.

There was something about her and it was the main reason she was sitting in front of him, dinning together.

Her power. That must be it. She had a strange ability, she wasn't just a normal shaman. And the spirit reyoku definitely was higher than he expected, as her furyoku grew and she could use more of it.

"Soy!" Opacho said with a thin cute voice while pouring the sauce, thing which made Rilury suddenly stopping with her mouth half full, having sort of a sick expression on her face. It was funny, Hao thought.

"Is there something wrong? Does Opacho's presence bother you?" he said with a smug, thinking that she felt terrible for being discovered and having her reputation in danger, just like any other human.

"No…"she said, hardly swallowing her food. "I really like her, she's cute, but…" she looked down and pointed at Opacho's bottle of soy. "That's…the most disgusting thing ever…"

He sighed, but slightly smiling after. Seeing her childish motive, it didn't even surprise him. He wondered why he hadn't been expecting that from the beginning.

"But" Opacho replied with a pouting expression "Soy sauce is Hao-sama's favorite! Here, try some!" she poured some in her food. Rilury suddenly wanted to puke, but laid down quickly so she couldn't see it anymore.

"No thank you, I'm full." she said then, because she really ate a lot and in a short amount of time, thing which made the suitable time for a siesta.

"Some people just don't know how to appreciate quality." Hao said to mock her on purpose. "Thank you, Opacho. You may leave." He said warmly.

A vein popped out on Rilury's head when she heard his first words, but was too tired to stand up or make a comeback. Instead, she looked at the sky and sank in her own thoughts.

When Hao finished his meal, he sat up and looked at her, already sleeping. She indeed was tired, because, after all, that night she hadn't slept one bit. The bath she took in the Spirit Lake obviously increased her furyoku, as the water was known for its shamanic properties for thousands of years and the capacity to raise one's power when he enters in contact with the philosopher stone. He also tried it (he had a body formed with oversouls made from the carbon residues, just like the animals did), but it didn't have the same impact as it did on her.

He knew that she received visions about her shamanic abilities. Lucid dreaming, entering a spirit state that had a cosmic bond. The strange thing is that she interrupted the process. Normally, her spirit would be taken in the Great Spirit afterwards. That was the main reason he came there, to interfere before that happened to her. Not that he was worried, certainly not. He wanted to investigate her power more. And it seemed that it was something she herself was scared of.

She flinched in her dream, obviously having a nightmare. The visions must be haunting her dreams. He gently took her blonde hair strand, which delicately slipped through his fingers. Then his fingertips stopped on her earlobe, touching the little black pearl which he easily took off. His palm touched her warm forehead. It was time to see what was happening in this girl's head.

Her dreams. The Earth seen from above. It didn't seem to be the same planet as in the present. Constant rifts and volcanic eruptions, no essence of life. The chaotic image was getting smaller as she was getting further in the space. She was floating in the Cosmos.

A marvelous comet. It was containing not only organic matter, but also a great amount of spirit energy. But something happened. It split in two and the bigger part suddenly changed its trajectory, while the other one continued heading towards earth. The image suddenly flashed by.

The solar system resembling the structure of an atom, the stars transformed themselves in the points of a dense circuit on a black pattern. The stars came back and seemed like they were unwinding rapidly, as she was traveling with the speed of light.

Then…there were no more stars. It was just darkness. But the color became somehow fluid, as it was forming a sort of a vortex, absorbing everything that passed by.

She figured out exactly what was it: a black hole. But in this one it was a great spiritual pressure. Something was struggling to get out. Something she felt a huge connection to, like a chain which felt like a burden on her spirit, somehow suffocating her heart. Huge white splinters of light and gamma rays would spring out from it. Everything seemed to be so unstable. Then electric sparkles came out. They were of a dazzling white and seemed to combine together in an erratic shape of a…huge hand. It was coming closer to her, wanting to grip her and pull her in…She stood there, paralyzed in shock, with nowhere to flee from this great gravity power…

But a soft hand gently grabbed her wrist from behind and pulled her out. The grip and skin touch were surprisingly familiar.

Both Hao and Rilury opened their eyes in shock at the same time. For a second they didn't realize that they were looking at each other, at least not until Rilury stood up and asked loudly.

"What are doing?" she said, still feeling the warmth on his hand on her forehead.

He was surprised by her reaction but shortly regained his composure.

"Just confirming my suspicions." He said nonchalantly.

"What?" she put her hand on her ear." My pearl! Give it back!" she said angered.

"You can have it." He said indifferently, lightly throwing it in her open palm. "I gathered all the information I needed about you." He smirked, thing which made her shout at him:

"You damn stalker! How could you –"

"I saw it, Rilury." He said with a serious tone. "And you're scared of it."

"I'm not scared…" Rilury said on a lower voice, looking down, but then she glanced at him with open wide eyes full of tears. "I'm terrified!"

She covered her face with her arms and then ran away, passing by him. Hao watched her surprised. It might have been a sign of weakness, but it was the first time somebody would openly admit in front of him her strong feelings, without a trace of hatred towards him. He also never saw her cry.

"My apologies for bothering you, master Hao, but our battle will start in a few minutes." Luchist showed himself, interrupting his thoughts.

"I know, they move conveniently fast this time." He responded. "Perhaps they've took the necessary measurements to prevent me from going for the Great Spirit again. They've prepared everything right this time, for the new King…"

A superior air was surrounding him now. He wasn't giving importance anymore to what recently happened.

Since she still didn't have any home to go to, after crying until she unloaded all her burden, Rilury was calmly walking down the alley. Not many people were in the village, probably there was a match going on. She decided to also kill her time at the Stadium, but when she overheard two people talking about the participating teams, she stood there for a while, thinking whether or not to go there. Thing is, she didn't want to talk to him, not after that incident.

"Hmph, it's not like he'll going to notice me anyway." She said to herself and carelessly walked towards the arena.

The other team supposed to be battling Hoshi-Gumi was clearly one made from another bunch of new members of the SF, as Hao guessed, because most of their opponents would eventually quit the fight before it would even start.

But for Rilury, the faces of the other team weren't new. They were people, other shamans she met while traveling with those people in the world, to different teknivals. They would usually train from time to time, but she never thought they'll join the shaman fight. After all, they didn't like fighting each other over power and they would usually let things work out by themselves and go with the flow.

This is why she was astonished to see them: Mike and her sister Maya, who both had their head shaved, and Flinch, another one whose dreads reached the ground. They might look weird for others with the large clothes they were wearing and also some piercing and flesh plugs, but they were actually nice people. They certainly didn't know who Asakura Hao is and also didn't have any idea how screwed they were.

Hao went on the arena alone, where all of the three of them were. He was looking at them jeeringly.

"So, it is you who decided to waste my time?" he scoffed.

"We are sorry to bother you from your path, but we are here not to stay in your way, as we do not like fighting without a good purpose." Maya said with a mild voice.

"Hm?" Hao raised an eyebrow and looked them with a malicious distrust.

"We only passed the first rounds, because you see… a lot of shamans are here, including our friend we wanted to visit. But the thing is, instead of seeing people connecting with the world, using the spirits for a good cause, we saw…" Mike said, but his sister continued his words.

"A distressing view…people full of sadness"

Hao chuckled.

"You are really speaking nonsense. What were you expecting in a shaman tournament?"

The Spirit of Fire rose with a burst of flames. He wanted to end this battle.

'What a monster…' ,'I don't want to see this massacre' , 'Demon'…

Those were thoughts from the public. He was already used to them. The strange thing is that his opponents were only thinking odd stuff

'Man, this is so cool!' , Do you think he'll come to a teknival one day? This spirit will definitely bring us the vibes"

"So foolish people…" Hao said to himself. "So…"

'Hao, don't kill them! They're nice people'

He recognized this different thought immediately. He looked at the tribune and saw… her, looking at him with determined eyes, holding the earring in her hand. He smirked.

"Man, this spirit is awesome! Now let us bring you the good vibes of the universe with our special move!" the guy with dreads said.

"Very well", Hao said maintaining his smug and also being slightly amused.

The three of them formed the shape of a triangle. They made an oversoul with their animal spirits, but they've combined them with speakers, headphones and also a record disk. Everything turned into a dj installment. Then, they started playing the music and the lights were surrounding the arena. The sky transformed into a beautiful ceiling of a planetarium, and colorful decorations were everywhere, fluorescent forms were also floating in the air. Just like a festival. People were admiringly watching this spectacle.

They started dancing like nobody was around. They danced like the word would end in a few seconds.

Everybody was looking at them with a wry expression. Rilury also had a sweat drop on her face. She liked the music, but apparently, her friends didn't know what a shaman fight is.

"This is to support our friend to reach her dreams. Rilury!" they shouted at her, and she felt completely embarrassed, but also flattered, and surprised and those feelings overwhelming her made her feel quite flustered.

"On her birthday, she asked to do this for you. Yume wanted you to receive our message!" the three of them shouted, waving at her.

Her eyes watched in shock. All this for her? She shouted back, fully blushed.

"You've put your lives at risk only to deliver some encouragements?!"

"Not only that! We also want to the people to see, to feel the good energy, flow with us in the ocean full of dreams and to aspire at a peaceful world." Flinch said with a pure happy smile.

Fire. Only one big red claw was necessary to break their oversouls. Everything stopped.

The three pacifists were lying on the ground, but, surprisingly, they were not heavily damaged.

Hao approached them. There was a dangerous feeling in the air.

"Dude, you really got me this time. At least warn us before your spirit starts to dance."

Flinch said while massaging his neck.

Rilury wanted to stop him and jump off the stadium, but one second before she could do that….

Hao laughed. But it wasn't a malicious one, neither sarcastic. It was just full of amusement.

"You really are weird. Simple people like you, accepting something that is beyond their understanding. Moreover, you seem to be quite happy about that. This is quite funny."

"We'll take that as a compliment." Maya said while cheerfully standing up.

"You should only feel lucky. The oversouls you've created apparently had a good defense, otherwive you wouldn't be alive. The match is already over, so I don't need to bother myself anymore." he carelessly said.

Radim declared the winner. Everybody left, somehow disappointed that there wasn't actually any fight. Rilury came to see her friends.

"I was at the point to interrupt your battle and get myself kicked out of the tournament, you know..." She said, but still glad that they were ok.

"You know that we wouldn't put ourselves in danger for nothing." Maya said smiling.

"So, how is she?" Rilury asked with nostalgic eyes.

"She's ok. She even got to be the leader of our group and is planning to set up a festival in the future. And yeah…missing you more than ever."

"Tell her that if she succeeds doing that, I'll definitely come." Rilury said with a grin full of assuredness.

"Here, why don't you visit us in our tents? We'll be having tea later, but of course after we take care of Mike. Apparently he entered another deep meditation after this traumatic experience.

Indeed, Mike was sitting in the characteristic position while constantly mumbling :"I want this happening to a festival. I want to see it more, more, more…"

X

The stars were shining on the black sky. Rilury had a nice cup of tea while discussing things she had to catch up on. Those people were so nice with her that they gave her a tent to sleep tonight, now she just needed to find the right place.

And she did. She found quite a nice place on the open hill that offered a nice view of the patch village. She started to put it up.

Only when she finished she noticed Hao who came near her with his usual grimace.

"I see you found this place quite favorable for camping, didn't you?"

"What are you doing here?"

"I live here. But apparently you already forgot about that."

She looked around and saw another small tents placed in the distance. Oh right, she forgot, this was his camping side. She sighed.

"Don't worry, I'll be leaving…tomorrow! I'm too lazy to dissemble my tent now." Rilury said in defeat and sat down on the grass.

"I didn't say you aren't welcomed here."

"Oh, so you'll bring me breakfast tomorrow?" she jokingly asked.

"Perhaps." Hao responded calmingly thing which surprised Rilury.

"I wasn't talking seriously, but…thanks!" she responded with a smile. "And…also thank you for…you know…not killing them". Her eyes had a sparkle of a warm gratitude.

"You thought them well. They don't seem to be aware of it, but their oversouls form a reflecting shield which redirects their enemy's attack. This is how they managed to enter the Torunament in the first place." He spoke maintaining his composure.

"Yeah, but still…" she looked at him with a warm smile, then chuckled at a sudden thought. "You know, maybe they presumed that the music overwhelmed their enemies and convinced them to imitate a defeat for their purpose. Now that I remember it, they've mentioned something about manufacturing some peace-talismans to give them in return."

He chuckled.

"You're good friends with them, huh? It doesn't surprise me."

"Why not?" she asked with a slight grin.

"Because…you're also weird." He joyfully said with a big smile. Rilury looked at him surprised, as she hadn't seen him like this since…

She blushed.

"Whatever, I'm going to sleep" she said in a hurry, not wanting him to notice that. "Don't even think about stalking me." She said while zipping the entrance.

He had a satisfied smile, because he knew how he made her feel. Before he could walk away, he heard a voice from behind.

"Hao!...Don't forget about breakfast, ok?" Rilury said with her head pulled out from the tent.

"Ok. Good night." He responded with a calm voice and a warm smile she couldn't see, because he still had his back turned.

She was weird indeed. But it was her weirdness that made him feel so interested in her.

*Hey, this is also a music-free chapter, but if you like to know what kind of music I'm talking about (more specific, I've been listening while writing this chapter) search on yt: Christolikid- Where is my brain. I hope it'll give you good vibes!